Hold Congress Accountable

Knowledge is power. It makes sure people understand what is happening to their country, and how they can make a difference. FreedomWorks University will give you the tools to understand economics, the workings of government, the history of the American legal system, and the most important debates facing our nation today. Enroll in FreedomWorks University today!

Search FreedomWorks

Resources

Blog

Klein: Five Reasons ObamaCare *Could* Collapse

While I don't believe that ObamaCare, soon after it finally launches next January, will quickly implode in the policy equivalent of a vast mushroom cloud, I do think its troubles will be acute, and its (slow-motion) collapse inevitable.

1. Young people may not sign up for insurance in sufficient numbers, causing premiums to rise for older, sicker folks -- and thus causing a health insurance "death spiral."

2. The law's Medicare "cost controls" (really, rationing measures) may not work, causing higher deficits, which will put pressure on Congress to ratchet down on the rationing tighter -- or begin to dismantle the law.

3. Employers may dump millions of their employees into the exchanges to save money -- again, causing higher than promised taxpayer costs.

4. The exchanges (those bureaucratic "marketplaces" where people will go to get federal subsidies for their mandatory health insurance) could be beset by glitches and breakdowns -- provoking public ridicule of the law and its authors.

5. The law could lead to overcrowding at doctors' offices, as has happened in Massachusetts under "RomneyCare" -- causing the public to view the Washington takeover as less than benign.

Klein concludes:

Obamacare has survived a Supreme Court challenge, multiple repeal attempts, and a presidential election. Now it is has to survive its own structural flaws.

Exactly.

But why wait to find out? The law has already failed to live up to its proponents' promises. Let's cancel ObamaCare and start over with a patient-centered system.

Dean Clancy is FreedomWorks's Vice President for Public Policy. He leads the group's efforts to reverse the Washington takeover of health care and replace it with a patient-centered system.

This bill was horrible to begin with and it gets worse each day more is revealed about it---this is a fiasco for all Americans, some just don't pay attention to this kind of stuff! The death panels that were talked about are part of the bill and it will be a disaster for our older citizens! God help us all because of this horrible take over of our once terrific health care--prices are not going down but will be hugh as this is nothing but a tax bill in reality!

Among President Donald Trump's first acts in the Oval Office on Friday was putting his signature on a rather lengthy executive order that deals a major blow to ObamaCare. The executive order states that it's the policy of the Trump administration to repeal the 2010 health care law and gives the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), presumably nominee Rep. Tom Price, M.D. (R-Ga.), who is awaiting Senate confirmation, "all authority and discretion available to them to waive, defer, grant exemptions from, or delay the implementation" of ObamaCare.

On behalf of FreedomWorks' activist community, I urge you to contact your senators and ask them to vote YES on the nomination of Rep. Tom Price, M.D. (R-Ga.) to serve as President Donald Trump’s secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.

With the passage of S.Con.Res. 3, the FY 2017 budget resolution, Congress has started the process of repealing ObamaCare through reconciliation. Although the budget resolution spends far too much and increases publicly held debt by $9 trillion, its purpose is to direct relevant committees to make recommendations to repeal ObamaCare. It will not be sent to the president for approval.

The Senate didn't waste any time when it convened at the beginning of the 115th Congress. The chamber moved quickly on a motion to proceed on the FY 2017 budget regulation, S.Con.Res. 3, which begins the process of repealing ObamaCare. The resolution directs two Senate committees -- Finance and Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions -- and two House committees -- Ways and Means and Energy and Commerce -- to begin work on repeal legislation through budget reconciliation.

Following reports that President-elect Donald Trump has named House Budget Committee Chairman Tom Price (R-Ga.) to serve as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, FreedomWorks CEO Adam Brandon commented: